Costa Rica

WHEREAS the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly revoked the article in the Criminal Code establishing the crime of contempt WHEREAS this advance in Costa Rican press legislation, however, leaves intact the most restrictive regulations concerning press freedom, in particular the formulation concerning the crimes of libel, defamation and publication of insults WHEREAS new limitations have been added to these through case law, such as a lack of respect for the editorial independence of the media, in particular the intervention of the Supreme Electoral Court in the organization of a debate among presidential candidates WHEREAS The Supreme Electoral Court also hurt press freedom when it demanded that a polling company disclose confidential information about opinion polls conducted for the newspaper La Nación WHEREAS Principle 1 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "o people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press. The exercise of this freedom is not something authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people" WHEREAS Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec establishes that "rior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press" THE MIDYEAR MEETING OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the Legislative Assembly to continue reforming legislation that is applied to the press in order to make it compatible with modern law and Inter American human rights legislation to protest the decisions of the Supreme Electoral Court that violate press freedom and the editorial independence of the media in the electoral process to urge judicial authorities to be more sensitive to the importance of press freedom in a democratic society when they issue decisions in cases alleging offense to reputation and take into account the guarantees established by the Inter American Convention on Human Rights and material developed by the Inter American human rights system.